If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail
It may sound cliché but it applies to everyone and all the time. SAP tech space is very dynamic. There have been a lot of simplifications and improvements since S/4HANA has been released. In this blog post, we will look into the development of some of the planning activities that were used to be done in ECC and their equivalent in S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC).
Planning in ECC
SAP Consultants who started their careers prior to SAP S/4HANA would have used the Classic/New GL Planning functionalities and CO Planning functionalities.
S/4HANA Simplification List
The ECC planning functionalities have been deprecated and replaced when S/4HANA was released. As per the simplification list:
The classic ERP FI-GL (new) planning is no longer supported in S/4HANA Finance or S/4HANA and is replaced with the component BPC for S/4HANA (Business Planning and Consolidation, formerly IBPF Integrated Business Planning for Finance). All information about this (links to the installation guides and documentation, other SAP Notes, and so on) can be found consolidated in SAP Note 2081400.
The solution to this issue can be found in note 2474069 - Reactivate G/L planning. However, there is a strong caveat - The steps also contain modifications. SAP reserves the right to deactivate the old ERP planning function definitively at some point. The question is when is "some point" going to take place?
If you are considering to reactivate the GL planning, you need to highly consider the impact of taking this route as per note 2663384 - Reporting on reactivation of G/L Planning in S/4HANA Finance vs the new BPC for S/4HANA Fi... (see excerpts below).
This has huge impact if you are migrating from ECC to S/4HANA and you have existing reports developed using the classic reporting tools.
S/4HANA - Import Financial Plan App
In S/4HANA, there's an app called Import Financial Plan Data which allows the planning to be done in Microsoft Excel which can then be uploaded as CSV file for plan data. You can download the following templates and do your planning. Using the same app, you can test import the source file, import the source file, and check the financial plan data.
Source: SAP S/4HANA 1909
What's new in S/4HANA 1909 and SAC?
SAP S/4HANA 1909 has been released and some highlights have been provided in another blog. You can also watch the specific Finance highlights from this blog. There have been significant improvements and innovations in the new release.
Source: SAP S/4HANA 1909 - Driver-based Planning with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud
It is quite interesting to note that majority of the planning can now be done in SAC (even Liquidity Planning). SAC development team seems to be on top speed in developing this product.
Source: SAP Help Portal
The CO Planning functionalities are now available in SAC. Keep watching this space for any updates.
What's Next?
All roads lead to Cloud. This seems to be the case with the recent developments happening in the tech space and SAP does not plan to be left behind. SAP has roadmaps which give everyone an idea of what are the recent innovations, planned innovations and direction.
It may sound cliché but it applies to everyone and all the time. SAP tech space is very dynamic. There have been a lot of simplifications and improvements since S/4HANA has been released. In this blog post, we will look into the development of some of the planning activities that were used to be done in ECC and their equivalent in S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC).
Planning in ECC
SAP Consultants who started their careers prior to SAP S/4HANA would have used the Classic/New GL Planning functionalities and CO Planning functionalities.
S/4HANA Simplification List
The ECC planning functionalities have been deprecated and replaced when S/4HANA was released. As per the simplification list:
The classic ERP FI-GL (new) planning is no longer supported in S/4HANA Finance or S/4HANA and is replaced with the component BPC for S/4HANA (Business Planning and Consolidation, formerly IBPF Integrated Business Planning for Finance). All information about this (links to the installation guides and documentation, other SAP Notes, and so on) can be found consolidated in SAP Note 2081400.
The solution to this issue can be found in note 2474069 - Reactivate G/L planning. However, there is a strong caveat - The steps also contain modifications. SAP reserves the right to deactivate the old ERP planning function definitively at some point. The question is when is "some point" going to take place?
If you are considering to reactivate the GL planning, you need to highly consider the impact of taking this route as per note 2663384 - Reporting on reactivation of G/L Planning in S/4HANA Finance vs the new BPC for S/4HANA Fi... (see excerpts below).
- When using the classic reactivated GL planning in S/4H (according to note 2474069), tables FAGLFLEXP and FAGLFLEXT_BCK are updated. The planning data stored in these tables can be accessed by classic reporting tools like report painter / report writer, drilldown reporting, RFBILA00 etc. They cannot be accessed by new reporting tools like CDS views (Fiori Apps), BPC reporting embedded BI), etc.
- When using the new BPC planning, table ACDOCP is updated, tables FAGLFLEXP/FAGLFLEXT_BCK are not updated anymore. ACDOCP can be accessed by new reporting tools like CDS views and BPC reporting, not by the classic reporting tools like report painter, drilldown reporting, etc.
This has huge impact if you are migrating from ECC to S/4HANA and you have existing reports developed using the classic reporting tools.
S/4HANA - Import Financial Plan App
In S/4HANA, there's an app called Import Financial Plan Data which allows the planning to be done in Microsoft Excel which can then be uploaded as CSV file for plan data. You can download the following templates and do your planning. Using the same app, you can test import the source file, import the source file, and check the financial plan data.
Source: SAP S/4HANA 1909
What's new in S/4HANA 1909 and SAC?
SAP S/4HANA 1909 has been released and some highlights have been provided in another blog. You can also watch the specific Finance highlights from this blog. There have been significant improvements and innovations in the new release.
Source: SAP S/4HANA 1909 - Driver-based Planning with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud
It is quite interesting to note that majority of the planning can now be done in SAC (even Liquidity Planning). SAC development team seems to be on top speed in developing this product.
Source: SAP Help Portal
The CO Planning functionalities are now available in SAC. Keep watching this space for any updates.
What's Next?
All roads lead to Cloud. This seems to be the case with the recent developments happening in the tech space and SAP does not plan to be left behind. SAP has roadmaps which give everyone an idea of what are the recent innovations, planned innovations and direction.
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